View from above builds massive legacy dataset

Geoscience Australia has slotted in two key pieces of a very large puzzle with the completion of the Georgetown and North East Queensland AusAEM surveys. Carried out over the course of 10 weeks, the North East Queensland survey (see image above) covered 28,679 line km at 20km spacing with a fixed-wing aircraft which shed insight on areas including the Adavale and Burdekin basins. And a helicopter covered 11,420.9 line km over the course of 90 days to complete the Georgetown survey (below), wrapping up last month. The newly completed blocks are the latest addition in a continent-wide survey that has been rolled out since 2017 using airborne electromagnetics (AEM) to map the subsurface. Geoscience Australia's airborne electromagnetic activity leader, geophysicist Dr Yusen LeyCooper, described the multipurpose dataset as a legacy collection for all Australians. "We are really leading the way, and there are other countries following us - for example, the U.S. Geological Survey is in contact with us because they're really impressed," he said. "They're flying a multistate survey over the Mississippi Delta trying to understand the hydrology, and the Norwegians fly this technology to determine tunnel boring feasibility and slope stability for landslide prevention and other things. "So there are lots of (applications). We will leave this dataset as legacy for generations to come, which I think is an exciting thing." Dr LeyCooper said that while areas of Queensland remained to be surveyed, the state ranked second behind Western Australia for having the most complete coverage at 20km line spacing. Dr. LeyCooper said airborne electromagnetics (AEM) could readily detect the difference between conductive and resistive rocks. He said the data produced was especially useful for mineral explorers grappling with the question of how thick the cover in an area was, for example. Preliminary data from the Burdekin Basin and Peak Range domes (part of the North East Queensland AusAEM survey area) has particularly sparked interest. The rhyolite domes have been identified by geologists as prospective for rare earth materials, and Dr LeyCooper said the preliminary survey data revealed quite interesting features beneath them. Meanwhile, survey work over Greenvale involved some experiments flying over coincident areas where industry had previously carried out survey work, he said "We've flown these as part of some interesting research on how effective our processing is at potentially finding mineralisation in that part of the world," he said. Dr. LeyCooper said the data from the North-East Queensland and Georgetown surveys was initially processed by contractors before being curated and compiled by GA into a package that was made publicly available. Those wishing to access the data from these surveys should visit Geoscience Australia's Product Catalogue (at https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/home) or the Geological Survey of Queensland's portal at https://geoscience.data.qld.gov.au/ The surveys were funded via the State Government's Queensland Resources Industry Development Plan, with contributions from the Commonwealth Government’s Data Driven Discoveries program and Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity initiative.

View from above builds massive legacy dataset

Industry Queensland

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